Accounting Competencies Required by Operators for Management of Small Business Enterprises in Kaduna State.

Abstract

This study focused on determining the accounting competencies required by Operators for management of small business enterprises in Kaduna State. This study adopted descriptive survey design. The population for the study comprised of all the 105 Accounting Lecturers and Operators of small business enterprises in Kaduna State out of which 15 were lecturers of accounting and 90 were Operators of small business enterprises. There was no sample and sampling because of the manageable size of the population hence the entire population was studied. A structured questionnaire titled, “l Accounting Competencies required by Operators for management of small business enterprises Questionnaire, was used for collecting data for the study. It was an 59- item questionnaire developed by the researcher in line with the literature reviewed and the research questions. The questionnaire was subjected to face validation by three experts in Business Education Department, Faculty of Vocational Teacher Education. Cronbach Alpha reliability method was used to determine the internal consistency of the instrument which yielded a reliability index of 05level of significance. The data collected were analyzed using mean and standard deviation. The accounting competencies required by Operators in management of small enterprises: the means and standard deviation calculated). This gave the value that indicated whether accounting competencies required by Operators for management of small business enterprises was needed or not in each item. This is referred to as performance Gap (P.G) that is PG = – . Thus: where the difference was zero ( – = 0) that is neutral, it means that there was no need for accounting competencies required by Operators for management of small business enterprises on the item because the level at which the item was required was equal to the level at which the accounting lecturers and small business Operators could perform the item. Where the difference was positive – = +), it indicated that accounting competencies is required on the item because the level at which the item was required was greater than the level at which the Operators could perform the item. Where the difference was negative ( – = – ), it means that accounting competencies is not required. Data analyzed revealed that accounting competencies are required in the area of prime book competencies, ledger competencies, bank reconciliation competencies, final account competencies and inventory management competencies possessed by Operators for management of small business enterprises in Kaduna State. It was concluded that accounting competencies is required by Operators for management of small business enterprises and therefore recommended that Workshops and seminars should be organized by Institutions and Kaduna State government in collaboration with the Ministry of Education to enlighten institution administrators on the need to organize retraining programming for the Operators on a regular basis so as to assist them develop their desired accounting competencies for management of small business enterprises in Kaduna State.